Casseroles

Viewing posts from the Casseroles category

When there’s a turkey dinner there’s inevitably leftovers, which opens up opportunities for more culinary adventures. I saved the carcass to make turkey stock later, and while some of the meat I planned to make yummy turkey waldorf salad with, for the family coming over for dinner tonight I decided to try this simple yet yummy looking recipe by The Kitchn.

I tweaked the ingredients based on the quantities I had on hand. The results were still great, and guests cleaned out their plates and the whole tray of pasta, with enough for a few people to have seconds. Give it a try!

One day Khairil sent me a link on Facebook messenger to this really yummy looking recipe by Spicy Southern Kitchen. It looked simple enough, and I just received a bag of shredded Cheddar from Merv, so I thought it’d be nice to make this over the weekend and invite Adik over for brunch. So yesterday after work I decided to stop by B.I.G. to grab whatever additional ingredients needed, and even found jalapenos – that place is so awesome! In the end I found out that Adik was going away with Mom and Ayin and family to KK for the weekend, but I decided to go ahead and make this anyway.

Making the biscuits from scratch really cut down the cost a lot; store-bought frozen biscuits here cost upwards of 20 ringgit per bag. This lovely casserole makes a really hearty brunch, and also great for potlucks and gatherings. Give it a try!

I usually make my casseroles truly “Western-style” – full of ground meats, dried herbs like oregano, thyme and parsley, and a lot of cheese. A while back Kak’mbang asked me to try making baked macaroni casserole “Malay-style,” which uses common local spices and eggs as the primary binding agent. Every now and then I’d surf the net for recipe ideas, but nothing really caught my fancy. In fact, honestly I disliked many of the ones I’ve tried before. Either the spices were overpowering, or folks would add really strange stuff like chili sauce and mayo to the casserole. Nnno.

Last year, a week before Aidilfitri celebrations we visited Mak Long (Rudy’s aunt) for buka puasa. She made her legendary nasi ulam, which was amazing and desperately needs to be immortalized in these pages at some point…

…but I digress. After a huge meal for breaking fast, while beaching myself like a whale on the couch I browsed through Mak Long’s cookbooks, and chanced upon her handwritten cookbook. This was her own personal collection of recipes tried and tested through years of experience in the kitchen. I immediately tossed the other books aside and began flipping through the pages. So many recipes looked interesting, and I snapped as many photos of these pages using my phone. This baked macaroni casserole was one of the recipes I captured.

Mak Long did not disappoint. This casserole is full of yummy meat and vegetables, and uses just the right balance of cheese and egg so that it’s not too rich. My family devoured it. A wonderful one-pot meal, perfect for potlucks or to be made-ahead for weeknight dinners. Do give it a try and enjoy!

Been out of the home-cooking scene for quite a while now. Recently, out of sheer boredom I started browsing through the Food Network website and finally discovered Ree Drummond. Her recipes look simple, inexpensive and quite comfort food-ish; totally my kind of food. So over the weekend I decided to try out one of her recipes – Chicken Spaghetti. Overall it turned out well; for Rudy and I, our only complaint was there wasn’t enough cheddar flavor, so I was thinking of adding more cheddar into the mixture next time round. For my mom and Kak’mbang, however, it was just right and not too rich so one can definitely have seconds with no problems (yes, both pint-sized women had seconds). So perhaps we can stick to the recipe and serve extra grated cheddar instead. Do try it out!

Updated on 24 Feb 2018 with new pictures. I used cream of chicken & mushroom soup instead of plain mushroom, because I feel it is more flavorful. I also upped the amount of cheese on top, using about 1 1/2 cups usually. Having made this several times I think the type and brand of cheese that we use does make a difference; Kraft’s sharp cheddar turned out best for me. For a richer sauce, you can up the amount of soup by using 1 305-gram can and 1 420-gram can. Definitely a crowd pleaser at potlucks.